basileus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βασιλεύς (basileús, “chief, king”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌbæsɪˈleɪəs/

basileus (plural basilei or basileis)

1. A title of the Byzantine emperor.
   • 1978, Славяни, volume 34, page 3:

     For two centuries its towers and domes were to rise in the heavens, drawing the attention of Emperors and Basilei, of Popes and Patriarchs.

   • 1990, Ernst Kitzinger, The Mosaics of St. Mary’s of the Admiral in Palermo, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, →ISBN, page 192:

     Although portrayals of basileis of the eleventh century wearing the loros in the traditional manner are not lacking, I cannot cite a Byzantine example of metropolitan origin later than 1100.

   • 2003, Victor Spinei, The Great Migrations in the East and South East of Europe from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Century, Romanian Cultural Institute, →ISBN, page 193:

     The revitalization of the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of the energetic and capable basilei of the Comnens dynasty: Alexios I (1081-1118), John II (1118-1143) and Manuel (1143-1180), and the wars with a Rum Sultanate troubled by dynastic fights drastically diminished its possessions in Anatolia.

   • 2007, Transylvanian Review, volume 16, Romanian Cultural Foundation, page 16:

     It is quite easy to establish the identity of these “Roman princes” who reoccupied Pannonia after Attila’s death: they were the basilei from Constantinople who, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, claimed to be the only successors of the Caesars (around the turn of the 9^th century they began to call themselves “basilei of the Romans”—“basileis ton Romanon” or “Romaion”).

   • 2017, Michael Martin, City of the Sun: Development and Popular Resistance in the Pre-Modern West, New York, N.Y.: Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 64:

     In our third example, the tyrant Nabis usurped power from the traditional, dual basileis of Sparta, then had them executed.

   • 2020, David B. Small, “Institutional Evolution of Ancient Greece”, in Dmitri M[ikhailovich] Bondarenko, Stephen A. Kowalewski, David B. Small, editors, The Evolution of Social Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures), Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 274:

     The basileis of the Iron Age were now replaced with various appointed and elected magistrates.

   • 2020, Tsvetelin Stepanov, translated by Daria Manova, Waiting for the End of the World: European Dimensions, 950–1200 (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450; 57), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 251:

     It would probably be worth seeking a possible connection-and-overlay between the name of one of the Byzantine basilei of the 9th century and the godfather of Boris I, Michael III, and that of the Bulgarian ruler Boris-Michael himself, who also lived in that age.

   • 2023, Christian Raffensperger, Rulers and Rulership in the Arc of Medieval Europe, 1000-1200, Abingdon, Oxon, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN:

     “Peter and Maria basilei of Bugaria,” “Peter and Maria in Christ autocrats of the Bulgarians,” and “Peter and Maria in Christ august autocrats and basilei.”

• basileus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• issuable, suasible

< Ancient Greek βασιλεύς (basileús, “chief, king”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɑsileus/, [ˈbɑ̝s̠iˌle̞us̠]
• Rhymes: -eus
• Syllabification^(key): ba‧si‧le‧us

basileus

1. basileus (title of the Byzantine emperor)

• basileos, basilleus, vasileus

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βασιλεύς (basileús).

basileus m (genitive basileī); second declension

1. (Medieval Latin) king, emperor

Second-declension noun.

• basileus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• basileus in Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften (1967– ) Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, Munich: C.H. Beck
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “basileus”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎, London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC